Australia: Release of secret reports highlights Labor's role in boosting spy agencies

In 1974, Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam appointed Justice Robert Hope of the New South Wales Supreme Court to conduct the inquiry in order to head off demands throughout the labour movement for the abolition of the notoriously right-wing Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the undercover domestic political police force. Together with the state police Special Branches, ASIO had become infamous for its surveillance, infiltration and dirty tricks operations against a wide range of people, including workers, students, socialists, anti-Vietnam War protesters and other political activists.

Whitlam also asked Hope to cover other increasingly controversial agenciesthe Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), which specialises in overseas espionage and covert operations, the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO), the militarys intelligence headquarters, and the Defence Signals Division (DSD), which intercepts and monitors telephone calls and telecommunications throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Media leaks had indicated that these agencies, in addition to collaborating with their US and British counterparts in aiding repressive military regimes, such as Suhartos in Indonesia and Pinochets in Chile, were actively spying on Australians as well.

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